Untitled

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 930, 31 January 1924, Page 4

Thirty-two volumes in the Braille type have been received in Christchurch from the National Library for the blind in London. The Ashburton Band recently conducted a sports gala to raise funds to finance the members’ participation in a forthcoming contest. The effort netted £250. A dense fog has at intervals prevailed in Cook Strait during the past few days, and ships have been obliged to reduce speed and constantly sound their foghorns. A total eclipse of the moon will take place on Thursday, February 21st next. It will begin at 12.45 a.m. and continue for some six hours. The sun should be well up before the eclipse is properly over. Mr L. Simpson, a well-known member of the Wellington Rugby Referees’ Association, will be one of the official party travelling with the All Blacks on their tour of Great Britain. One of the features of radium, as explained by Dr. Barnett during a lecture at Oamaru, was that in 2000 years a piece of radium would be ,only half as potent, so it was obvious that for all practical purposes it was inexhaustible. A farmer in Poverty Bay who owns one of the properties through which the fire recently swept, says that there has been a wonderful clearance of heavy timber, and that although he has lost many fences the clearing up of the land more than repays him. “I am starting the new year at a pound fine,” said Mr Barton, S.M., in dealing with a cyclist for riding without lights at the Wanganui Court on Monday. The magistrate added that if the pound fine did not have the desired effect, he would increase the amount. The Wellington Chamber of Commerce has proposed that postcards characteristic of New Zealand life and scenery should be despatched to friends, relatives, parent firms, hospitals, etc., in the Old Country reminding them not to fail to visit the New Zealand Court at the Empire Exhibition. It invites the co-operation of other chambers in the matter. It is intended to hold a “postcard day” on April 25. Mr Elsdon Best, of Wellington, was reelected president of the Polynesian Society at the annual meeting held in New Plymouth this week. The society decided to transfer its headquarters, which have been at New Plymouth since the inception of the society, to Wellington, provided satisfactory arrangements can be made for the continuance of the society and for editing its journal there. The transfer will be made as soon as convenient after such arrangements have been completed. The whaleboat, Sir James Clark Ross, is at present in Discovery Bay, near the South Pole, on a whaling expedition, and on her is Captain Hooper, of the New Zealand Marine Department. She is in daily wireless communication with the Bluff. The latest report stated that it is 15 degrees below zero and the aerial is covered with frozen snow, which is a good insulator. No report has been received as to the number of whales which have been caught, although the commander of the boat is probably in touch with his principals in Norway. Harvest operations have commenced in Southland and will be general in about a week’s time. The dry season has brought the harvest about a month earlier than usual. The quantity of oats marketed will probably ' show a decline. The crops are much lighter in straw than in previous years, and the yield also will be smaller. The seed harvested should be in good condition and light samples are expected. The grass seed harvest is now practically over. Although the yields are not so large as in previous years, the samples of seed thrashed are plump and well filled.

An inquest touching the death of Frederick Henry Free, the 15-year-old son of Mr W. R. P'. Free, supervisor of the Auckland Telegraph Office, was held at Auckland before" Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M. The lad met his death at Mercer Bay, Karekare, on Friday evening, when, in company' with his father, he was descending the treacherous cliffs there. When about 70 feet front the bottom the bey suddenly' overbalanced, and was dashed on to tne rocks below. His father, who had the awful experience of witnessing his son’s tragic fall, descended, and after two hours of battling succeeded in petting the body on to a ledge above highwater mark. Oil Saturday morning, with the assistance of Constable Henrickson, Mr Free removed the body front the cliff and conveyed it to Auckland, The coroner returned a verdict of accidental death. Mr Fred Wood, the Wallaby scrum half, whose death was reported from Sydney this week was one of the most successful halfbacks’ New South Wales had produced. He gained representative honours against a New Zealand team in 2905 and visited this Dominion in the same year.and again in 1913. He was, viee-captain of the Australian team which toured England and Wales in 1908-09, of which Dr. Morgan was captain. On that tour the Wallabies played 31 matches and won 25. scoring 438 points for and having only 146 points scored against them. In the first and third tests of the Australians tour in New Zealand in 1913 Wood was one of the outstanding players on the visiting side. His fine display behind the scrum largely accounted for Australia’s success by 16 points to 5 in’ the third test, played at (jhristchurcn. New Zealand won the first test, played at Wellington, and the second test. If you are making school shirts for your boy, there’s a very fine English cambric shirting now showing at the store for value. You will find a good range of clean, fresh looking stripes to choose from and it is to clear during sale time at 10jd yard net cash. All 31 inches wide at the C. M. Ross Co. Ltd. —Advt For bath room uso have you seen our hew fixtures? White enamelled in eggshell finish on brass, they are attractive in appearance, sanitary in service and can never rust or stain damp towels or brushes. This new' ware includes towel holders, holders for tooth brushes, soap, sponge and tumblers, clothes hooks, towel rings, toilsi paper holders, bath seats, etc. You are invited to see these delightful fixtures at Collinson and Son’s. Broadway.—Advt.

Te Kuiti’s war memorial of New Zealand marble was unveiled yesterday by General Sir Edward Chaytor. At the Magistrate’s Court yesterday at Wellington, Herbert Fake, of .Eastbourne, was sentenced to 21 days’ imprisonment for assaulting Archibald Hancock, who the adjoining premises. _ _ A poll of ratepayers of the Kiwitea rabbit district was taken yesterday, on » P' O P° a h a ‘ to alter the system of rating from th capital value the bas» The pro posal was carried by 289 v ? i voting papers being declared informal. A noil of ratepayers of the Fitzherbert riding of the Kairanga County Council was being taken to-day on the question of a proposecl loan of £2OOO for the renewal of cub berta and bridges in this area. The most important work in view is the reconstruction of an 80 foot bridge on Aokautere road at the foot of Bryant’s hill. Mr A. Shrimpton, chief Post and Telegraph engineer, leaves on Friday for Cape Maria van Diemen, where a temporary wireless station is to be erected for carrying out experiments in wireless direction-giving. Other members of the department *ill travel to Auckland, where they vvill mm the s.s. Tutanekai, and proceed to their destination. Mr Shrimpton will make the journey overland. The executive of the Farmers’ Union at its meeting in Wellington yesterday received a letter from the Department of Industries and Commerce stating that the question of sending a commercial mission ot inquiry to th. Near East was being considered. It was resolved that a deputation should wait Upon the Hon. W. Downio Stewart to discuss the question of subsidising a shipping line to the East. Information has been received in Auckland that George Morns, a builder of that city, who disappeared, and was made bankrupt in May last, has been arrested in Melbourne. He has been waiting in custody for a fortnight for proof of his identity. At a creditors’ meeting in May, the Official Assignee stated that unsecured claims totalled £3556 in addition to liens against contracts. As far as he could see, there was not a brass farthing for the ordinary creditors. A gentleman who accompanied the members of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce during their recent trip down the West Coast told a reporter that during the tour they travelled nearly 1000 miles by motor from Nelson, down the coast to the Franz Josef glacier and they were all struck by the exceptional absence of bird fife of all kinds. Thev travelled several hundreds of miles through undisturbed native bush but the party did not see a single weka or kaka. Neither did they see half a dozen pigeons or tuis until they got within a few miles of Waihou Gorge, about 100 miles south of Hokitika. Under the direction of the Kairanga County Council a commencement was made on Sunday evening with taking the tally of traffic on the main roads leading into Palmerston North. In order to secure this information, which is required under the provisions of the Main Highways Act, 23 men are employed in four shifts of varying hours, and the tally will be takeii continuously, night and day, for a fortnight. Tallies are being taken at the following five points: Foxton line, near Awapuni: Rangitikoi line, about a mile out of town; Napier road, a similar distance away; Kairanga road; and just across the Fitzherbert bridge. The Navy League Conference. in Auckland carried remits urging that immediate steps be taken to provide material and personnel for the local ■ defence of harbours and coasts, and reaffirming the- desirability that opportunities of naval, in lieu_ of military training, as provided in the New Zealand Royal Naval Reserve regulations, be extended to include boys between fourteen and eighteen years. It also emphasised the necessity for New Zealand assuming a fair proportion of the Cost of a strong naval defence for the Dominion’s trade routes and coast lines, the fairest basis being a per capita contribution at the same rate as that levied in Britain.

At the meeting of the executive of the Farmers’ Union yesterday in Wellington Colonel Herbert, speaking on the subject of noxious weeds, said that they were spreading rapidlv over both islands, and they were shutting their eyes to the fact that tens of thousands of acres were going out oi cultivation owing to the spread of blackberry. He moved “that this meeting view, with alarm the spread of noxious weeds and asks the Government, to see that the Act is rigidly enforced in comparatively clean, districts.” Other members pointed out that while some people kept their land clean others allowed the weeds to spread, and it was no use having the Act unless it was enforced. The motion was carried. Some amusing incidents are reported by the employees of the Kairanga County Council who are at present engaged in taking a tally of traffic on the main about Palmerston North. One relates how a motor-cvcfist. with a young lady pillion riding on "his machine, apparently feared a bv-law prosecution when he approached th# county official, and the passenger hurriedly held her coat over the rear number plate until the machine was well away. Motor car drivers wondering at the attention paid to their number plates, stop to inquire what misdemeanour they have been guilty of it is stated that the tally so far reveals a wonderfully largo proportion of cyclists, even though the points under observation are well out of the urban area.

The lighting of a fire by youths on the riverbed at Waingawa was responsible lor one of the most extensive and destructive grass fires that have occurred in that locality (states a Masterton telegram). Beginning at midday yesterday m a gorse blaze, it spread rapidly to the properties of Messrs J. Montgomery and J. A. Betts. Assisted by a growing breeze, the progress of the fire, which was startling in its rapidity arrested the attention of five other settlers, whose places were all threatened. Volunteer helpers foregathered to cope with the outbreak and succeeded in averting the destruction of the houses, though two outbuildings on one farm were demolished. An unfortunate aspect of the episode is that many of these farmers who had their paddocks shut up for winter feed, lost a lot ot it,' principally Mr Montgomery, 80 acres, and Mr Betts 40 acres. The losses of plantations pasture and fences are heavy, the total’ area swept is estimated at between 300 and 400 acres. Advice has been received by the Hokowhitu School Committee that, owing to a prior engagement in the Waikato district, the Minister of Education (Hon. C. J. Parr) will be prevented from attending the opening ceremony of the school on Tuesday next. The Minister stated that, if it were possible to delay the opening, he would be pleased to attend. The committee last night considered the matter but decided to proceed with the function on the original date and to invite Mr J. A. Nash, M.P., to officially open the school. Following some discussion, it was decided to substitute for the customary gold key, presented on such an occasion, a gold fountain pen, it being maintained that the latter would prove a more useful memento. The secretary of the Wanganui Education Board wrote requesting that the approximate figures of the pupils expected to attend be supplied and he suggested that intending pupils be given the opportunity of enrolling to-morrow and on Monday and Tuesday next. It is anticipated that from 200 to 300 pupils will be enrolled at the opening of the school. ( The Feilding ram fair is advertised to take place on the Show grounds, Feilding, on Thursday, 7th February, the day following the show. The association considers that it will be in the interests of both breeders and vendors to hold the fajr on one day instead of two, as originally intended. The rams are all from well-known and successful breeders, und those in quest of good stock cannot do better than fill their requirements at this fair. The sale ling, which is quite the most convenient and up-to-date in the Dominion, greatly facilitates the rapid handling of rams, and the new sheep pavilion will accommodate the bulk the entries.

Mirror-like polish quickly and easily achieved with liquid “Tanol.” Fine for floors, furniture and leather goods. Aiso In paste-form-—Advt.

Your suit to measure at Collinson and Cunninghame’s sale from purp wool Donegal tweeds for 92s od is unbeatable value. Sports suits to measure from same, 79s 6d! Extra trousers 17s 6d. Only possible bv somebody’s loss—in this case we bought from a bankrupts stock, his loss, your gain Why not a new to-measure suit with extra trousers for £5 10s—“the extra pair doubles tha wear.’’ —Advt. ’